‘Stealth’ Windows updates may do harm, says newsletter

Fixes made by Microsoft to installed copies of Windows without the user’s knowledge or permission — detailed here earlier this month — at first seemed alarming but harmless. A story set to appear Thursday in Windows Secrets newsletter says that’s not so.

“We have tested and confirmed that the silent updates actually prevent a
repaired copy of Windows XP from loading the latest patches,” Scott Dunn, associate editor of the weekly e-mailed publication, writes in the article.

Nate Clinton, Microsoft’s program manager for the Windows Update program, couldn’t be reached for comment late Wednesday afternoon.